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BLOCKADE-RUNNING. 
By  W.R. Hooper. 


Harper  * s 
Dec. 1870. 


Library  of 
The  University  of  North  Carolina 


COLLECTION  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


ENDOWED  BY 

JOHN  SPRUNT  HILL 

of  the  Class  of  1889 


3>3?0,7S-Hie 


w 


JO 

-  OH  •;  ■■■ 
MAR 

9/1  Ah 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
)RTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


lOFe 
22Sepf 

\       30t 


W/2 


BLOCKADE-RUNNING. 


g^-foty/ 


105 


BLOCKADE-RUNNING. 

THE  labors  of  our  brave  sailors  during  the 
late  war  have  not  received  that  attention 
which  their  merits  deserve.  So  numerous  and 
so  near  at  home  were  the  battles — we  kept  our 
eyes  so  steadily  fixed  on  the  armies  that  trav- 
eled up  and  down  under  different  leaders  be- 
tweenWashington  and  Richmond — that  we  have 
hardly  done  justice  to  the  work  of  the  navy. 
Yet  the  blockade  of  the  Southern  coast  on  so 
short  a  notice,  and  with  so  small  an  armament 
to  begin  with,  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  A  coast  line  of  3549  stat- 
ute miles,  longer  than  the  whole  coast  of  Eu- 
rope from  Cape  Trafalgar  to  Cape  North,  the 
longest  line  of  blockade  ever  attempted,  was  by 
no  means  the  chief  difficulty.  That  low  and 
sandy  line  of  coast  before  the  Southern  States 
is  pierced  by  189  openings  for  commerce,  equal- 
ly open  to  smuggling.  Our  Southern  coast  is 
double-fronted  :  one  view  looks  out  upon  the 
broad  Atlantic;  the  other  westward  upon  a 
long  line  of  internal  water-communication — 
bays,  channels,  rivers,  lagoons,  swamps,  that 
pierce  the  land  in  all  directions.  Storms  will 
so  change  the  shifting  sands  of  each  bar  that 
the  channel  of  to-day  will  sometimes  become 
the  dry  land  of  to-morrow.  And  all  along  that 
coast  dwelt  a  population  keenly  alive  to  the  pe- 
cuniary advantage  of  successfully  welcoming  the 
English  stranger ;  happily  triumphant  when  it 
could  deceive  or  destroy  the  Yankee  invader. 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  proclaimed  the  blockade 
in  April,  1861,  it  caused  a  remarkable  inequal- 
ity of  prices.  On  one  side  of  the  Atlantic  were 
thousands  of  bales  of  cotton,  which  was  rising 
in  price  over  all  the  world  except  in  the  South- 
ern States  ;  and  on  the  other  side  were  powder 
and  guns,  coffee  and  tea,  medicines  and  woolen 
goods,  begging  to  be  exchanged  for  this  very 
cotton ;  and  the  only  separation  between  these 


goods  was  that  paper  proclamation.  A  single 
cargo  that  could  enter  those  forbidden  ports 
was  a  fortune  in  itself.  To  evade  that  procla- 
mation all  the  skill,  all  the  greed,  all  the  nau- 
tical science  of  Great  Britain  were  called  into 
requisition.  The  fires  of  the  ship-yards  of 
London  and  the  Clyde  roared  with  unwonted 
activity  to  supply  the  great  demand  for  swift- 
sailing  vessels.  Success  would  pay  larger  pre- 
miums than  were  ever  attained  by  any  legiti- 
mate business  in  the  world's  commercial  history ; 
fully  equal  to  the  profits  realized  from  Spanish 
galleons  by  the  Drakes  and  Erohishers  of  the 
Elizabethan  age  ;  nearly  equal  to  the  profits  of 
the  slave-trade.  To  win  this  success  English 
seamen  entered  into  the  perilous  but  lucrative 
service  with  alacrity.  The  price  of  steamers 
rose  with  great  rapidity  —  what  matter  if  a 
thousand  pounds  too  much  were  paid  for  the 
vessel?  a  successful  trip  would  realize  tens  of 
thousands.  The  London  Times  of  November 
25, 18C3,  says  that  three  fine  steamers  had  that 
week  been  sold  to  run  the  blockade :  the  Cale- 
donia ;  the  Iona,  that  sold  for  $100,000 ;  and  the 
Fairy,  that  had  been  used  by  Prince  Alfred  in 
his  trip  round  the  Scottish  coast — three  of  the 
best  steamers  built  on  the  Clyde.  The  vessel 
that  royalty  had  hardly  ceased  to  use  was  now 
employed  to  break  the  laws  of  a  friendly  power. 
All  three  of  them  had  ministered  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  travelers  during  the  season,  and  were 
none  the  better  for  their  summer's  wear;  but 
their  second-hand  prices  brought  more  than 
their  original  cost.  Two  more  steamers  were 
building  at  that  time  for  the  same  purpose. 
"  Should  the  demand,"  says  the  Times,  "  con- 
tinue at  this  rate,  there  will  soon  be  scarcely  a 
swift  steamer  left  on  the  Clyde.  The  steam- 
boat owners  never  before  had  such  a  harvest, 
some  of  their  steamers  having  been  sold  for 
nearly  double  their  original  cost,  and  that  after 
a  season's  use."  In  December  the  same  paper 
relates  that  a  new  steamer,  the  Greyhound,  hav- 
ing developed  unexpected  speed  on  her  trial 
trip,  Liverpool  and  Manchester  were  both  after 
her  within  three  days,  and  she  finally  went  to 
Liverpool,  having  realized  a  high  price.  But 
her  speed  only  brought  ruin  to  her  new  owners. 
She  was  captured  by  the  United  States  steamer 
Connecticut,  and  sold  with  her  cargo  for  about 
half  a  million  of  dollars. 

The  capture  of  the  bark  Springbok  was  one 
of  the  first  that  called  public  attention  to  the 
legal  results  of  the  blockade.  This  vessel, 
British  built  and  owned,  left  London  for  Nas- 
sau in  December,  18G2,  and  was  captured  the 
following  Eebruary,  one  hundred  and  fifty  to 
two  hundred  miles  east  of  Nassau.  Her  clear- 
ance was  legal,  she  was  sailing  between  two 
English  ports,  and  apparently  on  legitimate 
business.  ."If  she  intended  to  violate  the  laws 
of  the  United  States,  it  could  only  be  subse- 
quent to  her  present  voyage.  But  on  her  cap- 
ture a  large  part  of  her  cargo  was  found  to  be 
contraband  of  war.  There  were  50,000  navy 
buttons,  stamped  C.  S.  N.,  evidently  intended 


106 


HAEPER'S  NEW  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE. 


for  the  Confederate  States  navy ;  there  were 
80,000  army  buttons,  marked  for  the  infantry, 
cavalry,  and  artillery.  Besides  these  were 
army  clothing,  cavalry  swords,  brogans,  navy 
boots,  etc.  Brought  into  New  York  and  there 
presented  for  prize,  the  court  decreed  that  the 
contraband  articles  were  evidently  intended  for 
the  use  of  the  enemy.  The  vessel  and  her 
cargo  were,  therefore,  confiscated  and  sold. 

During  all  the  war  Wilmington,  in  North 
Carolina,  was  the  great  depot  of  the  blockade- 
running  trade.  Every  effort  was  made  by  the 
navy  to  crush  the  business  that  centred  here ; 
but  it  was  found  impossible.  A  curious  in- 
stance of  this  was  seen  on  the  day  of  the  pow- 
der explosion  off  Fort  Fisher.  On  the  23d  of 
December,  1864,  one  of  the  largest  fleets,  if  not 
the  largest,  ever  animated  by  one  purpose,  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic,  the  American  Armada 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  stood  in  toward 
the  fort,  bound  for  its  capture  or  destruction. 
There  were  about  fifty  men-of-war  and  seventy- 
five  transports,  and  among  them  was  the  gun- 
boat Louisiana,  stored  with  two  hundred  and 
fifteen  tons  of  powder,  every  barrel  with  its 
head  out  and  its  fuse  in.  How  to  bring  this 
vessel,  with  its  fiery  cargo,  safely  under  the 
walls  of  the  fort,  without  having  it  blown  up  in 
advance  by  the  guns  of  the  fort,  was  the  ques- 
tion of  the  day.  "  This,"  says  Admiral  Porter, 
"  Commander  Bhind  was  enabled  to  do,  owing 
to  a  blockade-runner  going  in  right  ahead  of 
him,  the  fort  making  the  blockade-runner  sig- 
nals, which  they  also  did  to  the  Louisiana." 
Here  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  men- 
of-war  and  transports,  their  only  object  to  stop 
smuggling,  and  one  saucy  steamer  passing 
through  them  all,  and  being  made  the  uncon- 
scious pilot  of  the  powder-laden  gun-boat  that 
was  to  blow  the  fort  out  of  existence.  It  is 
needless  to  inform  our  readers  that  the  gun- 
boat blew  up,  but  that  the  fort  did  not. 

On  both  sides  it  was  acknowledged  that  the 
capture  of  Fort  Fisher  would  be  the  turning- 
point  of  blockade-running ;  and  to  stop  this 
was  to  cut  off  the  South  from  the  rest  of  the 
world.  This  fort,  Admiral  Porter  said,  "  was 
much  stronger  than  the  famous  Malakoff. " 
But,  like  Malakoff,  it  fell.  Just  prior  to  its 
destruction  Bear-Admiral  Porter  wrote  to  the 
Department:  "Blockade-running  seems  almost 
as  brisk  as  ever,  and,  I  suppose,  will  continue 
so  as  long  as  it  is  remunerative.  The  new 
class  of  blockade-runners  are  very  fast,  and 
sometimes  come  in  and  play  around  our  vessels ; 
they  are  built  entirely  for  speed.  Within  the 
last  fifty  days  we  have  captured  and  destroyed 
five  million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars'  worth 
of  enemy's  property  in  blockade-runners.  To 
submit  to  these  losses  and  still  run  the  blockade 
shows  the  immense  gains  the  runners  make  and 
the  straits  the  enemy  are  in."  Truly  it  must 
have  been  a  profitable  business  to  be  able  to 
lose  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  dollars  a 
day  for  fifty  days,  as  the  Bear-Admiral  writes, 
and  still  remain  lucrative.     In  January  of  the 


same  year  Bear- Admiral  Lee  informs  the  Navy 
Department  of  the  destruction  of  the  steamers 
Ranger  and  Vesta,  and  adds,  "  The  Department 
will  perceive  that  this  is  the  twenty-second 
steamer  lost  by  the  rebels  and  the  blockade- 
runners  attempting  to  violate  the  blockade  of 
Wilmington  within  the  last  six  months,  an  aver- 
age of  nearly  one  steamer  every  eight  days." 

The  rapidity  with  which  these  vessels  were 
captured  or  destroyed  during  the  last  part  of 
the  war  attests  no  less  the  vigilance  of  our 
sailors  than  the  boldness  with  which  it  was  at- 
tempted to  run  the  blockade.  What  a  life  of 
adventure  and  watchfulness  that  was  on  board 
the  blockading  squadron !  What  hopes  of  prize- 
money  !  what  eager  chases  of  a  flying  enemy ! 
Follow  the  career  of  one  of  the  ships  of  that 
squadron ;  take  the  Sassacus  for  instance — and 
we  only  select  her  because  her  name  is  so  prom- 
inent in  the  reports  before  us.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  the  1st  of  February,  1864,  her  crew  de- 
scry black  smoke  curling  up  from  the  lonely 
beach  at  the  mouth  of  Stump  Inlet.  Sailing 
down  upon  the  steamer  from  which  the  smoke 
issued,  her  crew  are  seen  busily  engaged  in 
throwing  overboard  her  cargo,  a  portion  of 
which  was  already  scattered  along  the  beach  ; 
for  they  preferred  its  ruin  to  its  capture.  A 
few  guns  dispersed  her  crew,  and  she  was  then 
boarded  and  found  to  be  the  Wild  Dayrell,  but 
two  days  out  from  Nassau.  Every  attempt 
was  made  to  get  her  off,  but  in  vain ;  and  final- 
ly the  Sassacus  and  her  companion-steamer, 
the  Florida,  fired  into  her,  and  destroyed  both 
vessel  and  cargo,  the  latter  alone  valued  at 
$200,000.  The  next  morning  smoke  is  again 
seen  rising  in  the  distance,  and  soon  the  chase 
commences  of  a  vessel  whose  crew  speedily 
endeavor  to  lighten  her  by  throwing  over  the 
cargo.  A  few  100-pound  rifle  shot  soon  stop 
her  oceanward  career,  and  conscious  of  com- 
ing destruction,  she  turns  and  heads  for  the 
beach.  Taken  possession  of  by  the  boats  of 
the  Sassacus,  she  proves  to  be  the  iron  steam- 
er Nuffield,  750  tons  burden — one  of  the  last 
and  best  steamers  out  of  the  Thames.  She 
was  laden  with  an  assorted  cargo  of  merchan- 
dise, munitions  of  war,  Enfield  rifles,  pig-lead, 
and  a  battery  of  eight  Whitfield  rifled  guns. 
Finding  it  impossible  to  draw  her  off  the  beach 
or  to  save  her  cargo,  she,  too,  was  fired  into  and 
destroyed.  Two  days  after,  another  steamer 
is  discovered  and  beached.  It  was  the  steamer 
Dee,  so  far  driven  up  on  the  land  that  she,  too, 
was  fired  into  and  destroyed,  with  all  her  val- 
uable cargo.  On  board  of  her  were  found  a 
number  of  valuable  books  directed  to  Jeff 
Davis. 

Four  days  later  the  Florida  saw  another 
steamer  passing  in,  the  side-wheeler  Fannk  and 
Jessie,  commanded  by  a  notorious  blockade-run- 
ner, Captain  Coxetta.  Driving  her  on  to  the 
beach,  a  hopeless  wreck,  her  captain  drowned 
in  his  endeavor  to  escape,  another  steamer  was 
discovered,  which  subsequently  proved  to  be  the 
Emily,  with  a  cargo  of  merchandise  and  salt. 


BLOCKADE-RUNNING. 


107 


She  was  also  fired  and  destroyed.  Here  in  ten 
days  five  steamers  were  destroyed  at  one  spot. 
The  cargoes  were  all  consumed  in  the  same 
flames  that  hurned  the  vessels.  The  Fannie 
and  Jessie,  the  Emily,  and  the  Nuffield  were 
new  vessels,  and  their  destruction  probably 
ruined  their  owners.  The  Wild  Dap-ell  had 
made  one  successful  voyage,  which  more  than 
paid  her  cost.     The  Dee  was  an  old  offender. 

Whenever  the  blockade-runner  could  not 
escape,  every  effort  was  made  to  destroy  her, 
generally  by  wrecking  her  on  the  nearest  beach. 
The  London  Times,  all  whose  sympathies  were 
with  the  South  during  the  rebellion,  and  who 
regarded  it  as  the  worst  of  all  fates  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  United  States  government, 
says :  "The risk  to  the  commander  is  fearful, as 
Federal  cruisers  are  most  dangerous  to  en- 
counter. The  instructions  to  commanders  of 
blockade-runners  are  to  beach  their  ships  rath- 
er than  let  them  be  captured  by  the  Federals. 
When  there  is  no  chance  for  the  escape  of  the 
ship  at  night,  the  crew  scuttle  her  and  escape, 
if  possible,  in  the  boats ;  before  the  Federals 
can  board  the  scuttled  ship  she  is  very  often 
water-logged  and  sunk."  The  Times  says  that 
the  pay  to  the  commander  is  very  high,  propor- 
tionate to  the  risk  he  runs  and  the  profits  he 
is  expected  to  make.  A  round  trip  from  Ber- 
muda or  Nassau  pays  the  captain  £S00  ($4000), 
besides  the  privilege  of  purchasing  twelve  bales 
of  cotton  for  £15  a  bale,  worth  £75  at  Liver- 
pool. Two  trips  can  he  made  "each  moon" 
from  Nassau,  one  from  Bermuda;  so  that  for 
his  fortnight's  successful  voyage  from  Nassau 
the  captain  realizes  $7600 !  The  Times  sub- 
sequently prints  a  letter  from  the  captain  of  the 
steamer  Banshee,  who  succeeded  in  making  his 
escape,  but  at  the  expense  of  his  deck  load : 
"We  left  Wilmington  September  21;  at  5.30 
on  the  22d  discovered  a  large  steamer  about 
two  miles  off.  This  fellow  gave  us  a  tremen- 
dous chase.  At  first,  when  the  water  was 
smooth,  we  gained  on  him  ;  it  then  came  on  to 
blow,  and  he  got  his  sails  to  bear,  and  came 
tip  with  Vis.  I  thought  I  saw  New  York  in 
prospective.  We  then  threw  over  part  of  our 
deck  load,  and  went  away  from  him.  The 
wind  increased  almost  to  a  gale,  and  he  came 
up  again.  We  then  put  her  head  to  the  sea, 
and  threw  the  remainder  of  the  deck  load  off, 
which  lightened  her,  and  we  gained  steadily, 
and  lost  him  at  7.30  p.m.,  after  a  chase  of  four- 
teen hours ;  and  right  glad  I  was  to  see  him 
stop.  There  never  was  such  a  chase  except 
the  Nashville  by  the  -Keystone  State,  and  we 
should  most  surely  have  been  taken  if  we  had 
not  lightened  her." 

The  chase  of  such  a  blockade-runner  as  this 
was  always  a  scene  of  intense  excitement  to 
every  person  on  board ;  pride,  patriotism,  and 
pocket  were  all  appealed  to.  These  steamer's 
were  richly  laden,  and  their  capture  put  half 
the  value  of  vessel  and  cargo  into  the  pockets 
of  the  captors.  England  was  very  unpopular 
with  the  marine,  and  England  had  built  and 


manned  every  one  of  these  illegal  traders ;  their 
capture  touched  the  purses  of  English  mer- 
chants. They  were  built  expressly  for  speed  ; 
and  to  capture  them  it  was  first  necessary  to 
overhaul  them  by  superior  speed.  All  these 
vessels  were  so  built  as  to  deceive ;  they  were 
very  long,  low  in  the  water,  quite  narrow,  and 
painted  a  dull,  neutral  color,  so  as  not  to  catch 
the  eye  of  the  watching  sailor.  They  burned 
a  coal  that  emitted  no  smoke.  As  if  conscious 
of  their  illegal  errand,  they  tried  to  hide  them- 
selves and  their  work  in  the  obscurity  of  dark- 
ness. To  see,  chase,  overhaul,  and  capture 
them,  thus  benefiting  at  once  the  country  and 
their  own  pockets,  was  the  eager  desire  of  ev- 
ery American  sailor.  And  in  the  four  years 
of  the  blockade  one  thousand  six  hundred  cap- 
tures, of  every  description,  from  the  empty  boat 
from  which  the  oars  had  been  lost  to  the  mag- 
nificent steamer  but  just  launched  on  her  first 
voyage,  attest  the  skill,  the  energy,  and  the 
watchfulness  of  cur  brave  marine. 

When  the  capture  was  made  the  vessel  was  • 
sent,  under  the  charge  of  a  prize  crew,  to  some, 
neighboring  port,  generally  Key  West,  Phila- 
delphia, New  York,  or  Boston.  Soon  after  the 
proceedings  commenced  it  was  found  that  the 
expenses  of  the  trial  were  very  different  at  the 
several  ports.  Congressional  investigation  de- 
veloped the  fact  that  at  Boston  costs  amount- 
ed to  5.83  per  cent.,  at  Philadelphia  to  14.00 
per  cent.,  and  at  New  York  to  15.39  per  cent. ; 
so  that  it  cost  three  times  as  much  to  procure 
justice  and  condemnation  at  New  York  as  at 
Boston.  The  great  object  of  the  lawyers  em- 
ployed by  the  English  owners  was  so  to  delay 
the  sale  that  the  expenses  should  be  so  large 
that  neither  the  government  nor  the  captors 
should  realize  any  money  out  of  it ;  their  ill  . 
wind  should  blow  no  good  to  any  one  else.  The 
Louisa  Aijres  was  brought  into  New  York  laden 
with  fish,  and  within  twenty-four  hours  Mr. 
Smith,  the  United  States  District  -  Attorney, 
moved  for  an  order  of  sale,  on  the  ground  that 
the  fish  would  not  keep.  The  counsel  for  the 
late  owners  came  into  court  with  a  long  array 
of  affidavits  from  parties  who  swore  that  the 
fish  were  not  perishing,  but  would  keep  any  rea- 
sonable time ;  the  motion  for  an  immediate 
sale  was  therefore  denied.  Soon  after  the 
Brooklyn  Board  of  Health  notified  the  Prize 
Commissioners  that,  if  the  fish  were  not  re- 
moved, they  would  have  them  cleared  out  as  a 
nuisance.  The  cargo  was  thereupon  ordered  to 
be  sold,  but  did  not  pay  expenses,  only  realizing 
$  105,  when  the  invoice  price  was  $5000.  When 
the  Stettin  was  captured  and  brought  into  port, 
her  old  crew  quietly  flooded  the  cargo  with  salt- 
water to  its  destruction.  The  Hiawatha  was 
sent  to  New  York,  where  the  United  States 
Marshal  permitted  one  of  its  owners,  named 
Potts,  to  keep  charge  of  it,  As  soon  as  it  was 
in  his  hands  Potts  shipped  to  Liverpool  250  of 
its  packages  of  tobacco,  valued  at  $25,000.  Just 
before  the  goods  were  to  be  sold  under  a  decree 
of  condemnation  the  tobacco  was  discovered  to 


108 


HARPER'S  NEW  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE. 


be  missing.  The  sale  was  therefore  adjourn- 
ed ;  and  before  it  finally  took  place  the  remain- 
ing articles  had  so  risen  in  value  as  to  more 
than  replace  the  twenty-five  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  abstracted  tobacco. 

The  laws  that  regulate  the  condemnation  of 
prizes  provide  that  all  who  join  in  the  capture 
shall  share  in  the  proceeds ;  and  that  all  shall 
be  considered  as  aiding  in  the  capture  who  are 
within  signal  distance.  The  captor  generally 
gets  half  the  avails  of  the  property  sold,  both 
of  ship  and  cargo — government  the  other  half. 
The  proceeds,  after  payment  of  expenses,  are 
divided  among  the  captors  in  proportion  to 
their  pay  and  rank.  The  commanding  officer 
of  the  squadron  gets  one-twentieth,  or  five  per 
cent. ;  the  fleet  captain  receives  one-hundredth, 
or  one  per  cent. ;  but  if  the  capture  is  made  by 
a  single  vessel,  her  commander  gets  one-tenth. 
When  the  Hope  was  captured  by  the  little  tug 
the  Eolus,  off  Wilmington,  October  22,  1864, 
the  acting-master  of  the  latter  won  $13,164  85 
for  his  day's  work.  The  assistant-engineer  re- 
■ceived  from  that  single  prize  $6657,  or  more 
than  four  years'  pay.  The  seamen  obtained 
over  a  thousand  dollars  apiece ;  while  the  very 
cabin-boy,  whose  pay  was  less  than  two  dollars 
and  a  half  a  week,  won  $532  60  for  his  share. 
But  the  lucky  Eolus  also  assisted,  nine  days 
later,  in  capturing  the  steamer  Lady  Sterling  ; 
and  the  Lady  Sterling  and  her  cargo  sold  for 
$509,354  64.  Each  of  the  acting-ensigns  of 
the  Eolus  received  $9589  67  from  the  Sterling, 
making  about  twenty-three  thousand  dollars 
prize-money  for  their  ten  days'  work.  The 
seamen  each  received  two  thousand  in  addition 
to  the  thousand  they  had  pocketed  nine  days 
before  from  the  Hope.  It  was  a  fortunate  cap- 
ture, that  of  the  Lady  Sterling,  and  shows  how 
uncertain  it  is  whether  the  smuggler  shall  make 
a  fortune  for  its  owners  or  its  captors.  When 
she  came  down  the  river,  soon  after  dusk,  she 
was  happily  noticed  by  one  of  the  blockading 
squadron  that  was  not  near  enough  to  stop  her, 
but  that  sent  up  signal  rockets  to  warn  the  rest 
of  the  fleet  that  a  blockade-runner  was  going 
out.  The  Calypso  and  the  Eolus  saw  these 
rockets  and  sailed  in ;  and  as  the  Sterling  came 
sweeping  by  under  as  full  a  head  of  steam  as 
the  best  of  coal  and  oil  could  produce,  the 
Calypso  poured  a  full  broadside  into  her,  every 
shot  striking  and  setting  her  on  fire.  But  the 
Lady  swept  on.  The  vessel  and  her  cargo  were 
worth  eight  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  her 
captain  could  not  voluntarily  yield  that  value 
to  the  Yankees.  Eor  three  hours  the  Sterling 
sailed  southward  along  the  shore,  followed  by 
the  Calypso  and  the  Eolus  a  little  farther  off 
from  land,  but  near  enough  for  the  six  glasses 
on  board  the  Calypso  to  scan  every  movement 
on  board  the  burning  steamer.  After  a  chase 
of  about  thirty-five  miles,  varied  by  a  few  guns 
at  long  bowls,  the  Lady  Sterling  turned  round, 
hoping  to  escape  by  doubling  on  her  tracks. 


But  the  movement  only  brought  her  into  the 
jaws  of  the  Eolus.  A  broadside  was  once  more 
poured  in  as  she  turned ;  and  finding  it  impos- 
sible to  escape,  she  surrendered.  The  fire  had 
then  obtained  almost  complete  possession  of  the 
cargo ;  but  by  throwing  over  the  180  bales  of 
burning  cotton  the  vessel  was  brought  into 
port  and  court,  and,  damaged  as  she  was,  sold 
for  over  half  a  million  of  dollars. 

When  the  Magnolia,  on  the  last  day  of  July, 
1862,  captured  the  Memphis,  with  her  cargo  of 
cotton  and  resin,  she  was  so  fortunate  that  no 
other  vessel  was  in  sight.  No  complaint  was 
made  with  the  Ancient  Mariner  that  they  were 

"Alone,  alone— all,  all  alone — 
Alone  on  a  wide,  wide  sea." 

For  there  was  no  other  vessel  to  divide  the 
more  than  half  a  million  of  dollars  that  that 
hour  fell  into  their  clutches.  The  lieutenant 
of  the  Magnolia  received  $38,318  55  for  his 
single  share  of  that  day's  work.  Each  ordinary 
seaman  won  over  seventeen  hundred  dollars. 

During  the  war  one  thousand  six  hundred 
captures  were  made.  Of  these  less  than  eight 
hundred  have  been  condemned  and  their  pro- 
ceeds paid  over.  Yet  these  captures  realized 
at  auction  more  than  twenty-five  millions  of  dol- 
lars. As  much  property  was  destroyed  as  was 
captured  ;  so  that  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  loss 
of  the  blockade-runners  was  over  fifty  millions 
of  dollars.  The  success  of  the  blockade  on 
the  part  of  government  was  one  of  the  great 
facts  of  the  late  war.  It  was  the  largest  block- 
ade ever  attempted,  and  it  was  thorough.  In 
a  semi-official  communication  to  Lord  Russell, 
Mr.  Mason  called  the  attention  of  the  Premier 
to  the  continued  violation  of  the  blockade  by 
the  runners.  Lord  Russell  replied  by  naming 
to  the  representative  of  the  Confederate  pow- 
ers the  different  prices  that  prevailed  on  the 
two  sides  of  the  blockading  fleet.  At  Charles- 
ton, cotton  was  in  abundance  at  eight  and  ten 
cents  a  pound,  and  tens  of  millions  of  pounds 
waiting  to  be  sold  ;  at  Nassau,  only  eight-and- 
forty  hours  away,  it  was  worth  over"a  dollar, 
and  the  manufacturing  world  was  hungry  for 
it. 

The  benefit  of  this  smuggling  to  the  South- 
ern cause  was  incalculable.  The  business  it 
carried  into  the  South,  the  life  and  activity  it 
brought,  the  news  it  told  and  carried  away,  the 
sympathy  it  communicated,  the  money  it  left 
behind,  all  these  were  sinews  of  war,  without 
which  that  war  must  have  ceased-fjom  twelve 
to  twenty-four  months  earlier  than  it  did.  The 
intercourse  furnished  by  the  blockade-runners 
was  the  connecting  link  between  the  Southern 
Confederacy  and  the  outer  world  ;  substantial 
evidence  of  the  sympathy  of  other  and  older 
nations.  It  was  of  as  much  moral  value  as 
material ;  it  cheered  and  encouraged  the  South- 
ern heart,  that  would  otherwise  have  felt  ostra- 
cized from  the  family  of  nations. 


41 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032743069 

FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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